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Friday, 3 July 2015

To raise the $10 million Ottawa refuses to invest in new access road essential to Shoal Lake 40 First Nation's future, a road that'd finally make it possible to treat and enjoy their own water—the very water that's nourished Winnipeggers for 100 years. See the whole story

What's the goal?

The goal here is to collectively raise the $10 million Ottawa refuses to invest in the all-weather access road essential to the survival and viability of the people of Shoal Lake 40 First Nation. It's a road that, if built, would help make it possible for them to finally enjoy what generations of Winnipeggers have had for a century—access to clean drinking water.

Winnipeggers past and present are asked to consider the true source of 'their' water, and the costs to those displaced by its diversion to the city roughly 140 kilometres away. For there is no way we in Winnipeg should get to readily drink, cook and bathe with that water while the people of Shoal Lake cannot, a sad and unjust state of affairs the Free Press recently described as "an indictment of [our] indifference."

That is why what the federal government won't do—unlike other levels of government, who, to their credit, say they will contribute to the road's construction—it seems we as individuals must collectively step forward and do ourselves. Think of it as an opportunity to perform a true act of reconciliation, one with the potential to give life tothe recent recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. An act that would help honour a debt one hundred years in the making.